Those of you that have been crying yourselves to sleep, because you missed out on the ‘Death Is Unity With God’ 6x cassette set on Hospital productions -- because somebody bought it to sell on Discogs at twice the price -- can now rejoice and throw the mp3s in the bin.... Or perhaps not.
Modern Love have reduced the load by t…view full details.

I picked up that ‘Auto 17’ 12” these chaps released on Russell Haswell and Mike Harding’s OR label back in 2010 but wasn't aware they'd released anything else. Turns out the following year they released the ‘Summe…view full details.

Ltd 5-track 7" on Box Bedroom Rebels. Edition of 250 copies inc. iron on patches + ephemera. ‘EP’ is a brand new, five track (plus one extra bonus download track) 7” by Catalonian indie-pop noise warriors Lost Tapes. For such a short record, ‘EP’ offers an eclectic buffet of musical treasures. ‘This Is What I Wanted’ is a hazy psychedelic folk adventure. ‘Dreaming On The Waves’ is pure pop,…view full details.

This CD documents a collaborative concert between no-introduction-needed Japanese psychedelic titans Acid Mothers Temple and Rosina de Peira, a traditional singer of the Romantic Occitan language. How this meeting of minds between the far-out space rockers and the octogenarian French singer came about is a mystery to me but they seem to rein the…view full details.

The man who would have liked Sleaford Mods had they not slagged him off and is now forced to spend every interview reiterating how much he hates them is back with a new single. Plastered all over 6 Music like a particularly bland piece of wallpaper, it's Noel at his most upbeat, which is as upbeat as something halfway between Elbow and Embrace. …view full details.

So The Pop Group are back, 35 years after they released their last material, and they're sounding less evocative of their namesake than ever. At least that's what the opening title track suggests: a cacophony of harsh, industrial noise atop of Mark Stewart’s typically raucous vocals, which reference Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘The S…view full details.

This gloriously gritty free jazz racket features Australian guitar, bass and drums trio Exhaustion with Dutch saxophonist Kris Wanders. There’s no other music that sounds quite as raw and convey as much existential angst as free jazz , and this record delivers in spades on both fronts. It starts with reverb tank having a spitting fit amids…view full details.

White vinyl 7" on Invisible Reel. Of course, buying Snapped Ankles on vinyl is missing out on their performances - or is it getting ready for them? I Want my Minutes Back is both a catchy piece of electropop and a noisy, subversive experiment. The 2015 edition being slightly faster than the original, it’s all just a little more messed up, and will have you moving just a bit more frantically.…view full details.

Raccoglimento Parziale consists of Berlin-based Florentine duo Stefano Meucci and Andrea Giachetti, whose work will be known to some of you as part of minimal house trio The Clover. This disk is a much more experimental affair, blending acoustic guitar with radical digital editing techniques and some imaginative arrangements. It's a pretty uniqu…view full details.

IDM, I miss you. You and your obnoxious genre tag and frenzied percussive onslaught. Actually do I? I guess the worst thing that happened to it was the same thing that happened to most genres - self-indulgent musical joyriders taking the surface elements and regurgitating them without any unique edge or feeling. Presumably this is why producers …view full details.

This day marks a special day in the world of music. We are witnessing the birth of a new style, shiny and glistening against a backdrop of the mundane and the humdrum. It gives new depth to the phrase ‘hidden gem’ and contributes to the already bulging mass of bullshit journalistic labelling. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Crystalw…view full details.

Foolhardily did I proclaim that there wasn’t a slab of psych rock in sight on my review pile today, forgetting that Moon Duo are more psych than Laurie on LSD; these prime spook rockers play with a myriad cosmic tones and worship the endless black dot of space that hovers above us all -- and if that’s not enough, they’re repeti…view full details.

Juan Atkins returns as Model 500 (accompanied on a few tracks with Underground Resistance head Mad Mike Banks) with just his third album under the alias and the first since 1999’s &lsquo…view full details.

It shouldn’t take anything away from Vessels brand of electronic post rock that they’d have surely been one of the best bands of 2005. They create a music that was at one point everywhere but is rarely spotted now - namely complicated, mathy, electronica with live drums. It’s very well executed - the beats are tight, the …view full details.

I think we've always had a problem with jazz at work even now neither "Classics" Brett or Scandophile Mike no longer continue to perish within our decaying walls of chaos and strife. The two directors and Clint hate most of it, but the rest or most tolerant to various degrees.
Problem is me being a slightly feckless man-child i…view full details.

This post-punk split pits gloomsters in one corner against more gloomsters in the other, and there’s plenty to talk about, you philistines. Cast your eyes first on Havah, a band that features members of old-school skramz outfit Raein, who once had the same kind of provenance in the hardcore genre as Saetia,…view full details.

It seems that a few months ago I carelessly decreed that this sounded like Superchunk from hearing a fragment of a song, which is good grounds for me being tried and sentenced in a court of law and then forced to walk an endless deserted road for the rest of my life. The punishment fits the crime, considering tha…view full details.

Proving that the C86-influenced acts of today aren't all just jangle and fey posturing, Evans The Death continue their affinity for reverb and fuzz on second album Expect Delays, heightening it perhaps a little more here, which is what I felt was missing from their self-titled 2012 debut. They sound more sophisticated…view full details.

Oh ATFA. What an utter legend Brian Shimkovitz is. Ata Kak's album was a chance roadside market stall discovery and due to his passion for this hidden music from the African musical depths it became the first ever post he made on his burgeoning blog almost a decade ago and has subsequently become the fourteenth release on what has become an unde…view full details.

There's so much to sing the praises of in this gentle giant of an ambient record from Jonas Munk. Let's start with “Absorb”, which is early morning kraut drone; its synths fade slowly in, like the rising sun getting incrementally lighter. Munk sets the pace with a subdued rhythm that acts as the first part of a day’s long …view full details.

What do you get when you combine a spaghetti western, a music box and some abrasive noise? A Terrence Malick film. Well, take that film, set it instead in a rural Greek village full of audio abstractors and you get A Life is a Billion Heartbeats, a frankly bizarre album of treated guitar variations on traditional greek themes that unfol…view full details.

An open field of sonics, this one: we could call it post-rock but we’d be cheapening Aerial's concerted efforts to create a landscape on which anything can be expressed, in any way. It is post-rock, yes, but not in the way we know it; not because of sick guitar tones, although there are those, nor climaxes -- again, though, check that…view full details.

Ghostpoet certainly starts like an express train on his third album. Opener ‘Off Peak Dreams’ is a skittering, soulful effort driven by pounding drums, sparse piano notes and a funk ladled synth. It’s like he’s woken up and realised that he’s spent two albums making underground hip hop with esoteric appeal but has n…view full details.

It’s not often I’m impressed but in deciding what on earth we could review this week I chanced upon the opening track of this album by Sydney duo Au.Ra which is immediately ear friendly. It’s kind of like the House of Love covering PIL’s ‘Public Image Lim…view full details.

Argh, getting really sick of space-themed records now. It’s almost like the guitar toting egoheads of the last decade have all bought themselves a neo-analogue synth, hit a preset and, blown away by the shuttle-takeoff tones, proceed to record an album of vapid twonk. So upon reading that Testbild [exclamation!] have named their latest rec…view full details.

Ah, the ol’ conceptual synth record. Never before has the line between pretentious gear flauntery and textural interest been so easy to misstep. You’ve got sounds from the 70s that were so caught up in the new medium that they forgot to write great music, and modern records that fetishise just that. But there are some who aren’…view full details.

This disc features two live duo performances from experimental music superstars O'Rourke and Ambarchi. Both these fellers are about as eclectic as is humanly possible so I wasn't totally sure what to expect. What we get is two longish (about 20 mins apiece) tracks of seemingly semi-improvised, immersive electronica that sounds like its being pla…view full details.

There's very little house or techno in this week so I’m going to something about it and tell you all about this 12”. I’m sooooo nice.
The opening track here is pretty darn enjoyable. Its neither tech nor house to me just decent quality ‘lectronica with a nice catchy synth motif that gets stuck in your head worryin…view full details.

2LP on Nonesuch. There’s more to Jonny Greenwood than meets the fringe-draped eye. As well as a guitar extraordinaire, he is also a fantastic composer, working with Paul Thomas Anderson as he has in the past on the Inherant Vice Soundtrack - the grimy looking film featuring Joaquin Phoenix and, weirdly, Joanna Newsom. Double vinyl.…view full details.

LP on The Flenser. The Flenser has housed many of metal's most alternative and experimental acts recently, and Sannhet continue that hopefully long-standing tradition by joining the crew to release Revisionist, a record of many different types of bronzed metal: there's the fastness of grind in there, thank god, but they can slow it down so it has the precision of stoner. It stands as almost a commentary…view full details.

Reissue LP on Greensleeves. Produced by one of the reggae scenes most influential and prolific artists Henry 'Junjo' Lawes, this is a classic roots reggae album by vocalist Michael Prophet, best known for his “crying” vocal style. Produced at the legendary Jamaican Channel One studios with the unstoppable Roots Radics band, this record features classic sound system hits such as 'Gunman' and ‘Love And Unity’ and was engi…view full details.

Reissue 2LP on Relapse. From Finnish death metal supergroup Amorphis, ‘Elegy’ takes the bands well established, heavy, progressive metal sound into new and unusual fields that are rich in deep, atmospheric soundscapes as well as having a distinctive influence from the traditions the Finnish folk. Unavailable for almost twenty years after going out of print almost immediately following it’s original 1996 release, ‘Elegy&…view full details.

Reissue LP on VP Records. Dub subversions of the UK party political system from Winston Edwards & Black Beard. At 10 Downing Street was first released in 1980, and is now being reissued especially to overlap with the upcoming general election, a move I heartily endorse. If politics felt more like this record feels……view full details.

Coloured vinyl reissue LP on Warners. Peerless Atlanta riff-mongers Mastodon have their typically ambitious third full-length reissued on coloured vinyl. A concept album with a mythic slant heavily informed by the writings of Joseph Campbell, ‘Blood Mountain’ features guest contributions from Josh Homme (Kyuss/Queens Of The Stone Age/Eagles Of Death Me…view full details.

Reissue LP on Relapse. Bedemon are America’s first ever doom band featuring Randy Palmer, Geof O’Keefe and Bobby Liebling AKA members of the mighty pioneers of American heavy metal, Pentagram! ‘Child Of Darkness’ features archival recordings from the 1970s and is an essential possession for all fans of Pentagram, doom and heavy metal. Nihilism at it’s best.…view full details.

The soft, ever hushed uplift of ‘The Weight of Spring’ is strange; naming themselves after Codeine, it’s only natural that The White Birch’s music moves as slowly and sadly as that band, offering a communal, hand-in-hand take on total misery. Remember how every Low s…view full details.

Repress 12" on Dixon Avenue Basement Jams. A side each from CT Trax and TX Connect, DABJ Allstars Vol. 1 continues the good work of Dixon Avenue Basement Jams. Opening with a hearty 303 workout, with rough synths and house-y chords, it’s a nostalgic opening. The flip side delivers driving rhythm and a slice of distinctive Detroit quality. Out on 12” vinyl from Dixon Avenue Basement Ja…view full details.

12" on Edit Select. Of course, everybody knows about The Teste’s classic techno track The Whipe. Don’t you? Haven’t you heard of this? You should. Now the infamous Steve Bicknell and Mike Parker do their take on cult classic techno heritage for your dancefloor thumping pleasure. Never refuse when offered a delicious treat!…view full details.

Like with football, nationality in music doesn’t really matter any more - everyone just mucks in and that’s the way it should be. It shouldn’t be that unusual that what we have here is a Russian band sounding like they were one of the more hidden treasures from early 80’s Manchester with a FAC catalogue number under…view full details.

7" on Zoo Music. What a pleasure to pick up this new 7” single from Crocodiles and find that ‘U Sexy Thing’ isn’t just an ironic nod in the title, but an actual cover of the groovy Hot Chocolate classic. The band play it sincerely, but their noisy guitar-punk style gives it a whole new lease of life. Oh, and the actual single, ‘Crybaby Demon’, on the A-side too.…view full details.

Dennis Young was the percussionist in legendary New York art funksters Liquid Liquid. Here is a collection of all of his rare and unreleased solo recordings from 1982-83. If you like drums you are going to like this. It’s full of them from the pounding burundi styles of opener ‘Big Boom’ to t…view full details.

Translucent red + blue colored vinyl 2x7" on Famous Class. I don’t need to tell you about Ty Segall and his highly popular, highly energised garage-rock stylings, you probably already know. But what I do need to tell you about is the fact that Mr Face’s two 7”s are pressed on red and blue vinyl respectively, and that if you gaze through them both together, they act like 3D glasses for the artwork! Ac…view full details.

2LP reissue on Audika. This was the album that started the re-assessment of Arthur Russell's life and work. It compiled previously unreleased and unheard work from Arthur's enormous archive and featured tracks written and recorded between '85 and '90. Now here's the re-issue, spread over to 2LP for maximum sound clarity. …view full details.

180g coloured vinyl reissue LP on Medical Records. By giving a big shout-out to Morton Subotnick with the title of this record, Laika set the tone for their brand of sonics, willing to experiment and move forward into new territory. Silver Apples Of The Moon must have been pretty thrilling when it landed in 1995: it remains pretty thrilling today to be frank. Back on vinyl after too long out of print,…view full details.

LP on The Thing Records / Trost. Art rock meets jazz by The Thing on this album titled Garage. Recorded back in 2004 and finally mixed for your aural pleasure in 2014, this recording from Mats Gustafsson on saxophones, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten on smooth double bass, and Paal Nilssen-Love hammering the drums, plays some raw versions of songs from everyone from Richard Berry to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.…view full details.

LP on Woo Me!. Aldous Harding makes pastoral folk for when your house is full of cold air in the winter and needs a little warmth. Bringing to mind a whispered version of Sharon Van Etten in vocal melodies and First Aid Kit in the sparse but strangely full instrumental arrangements, her self-titled record is recommended for fans of narratively woven and impressively intricate folk music. …view full details.

2LP on Ritual Productions. Some brooding psychedelia full of detours into scratchy guitar riffs and some doom metal style vocals. Stealing Fire From Heaven is a dark place to be full of menacing drums, swirling delay and brooding guitar. 11PARANOIAS create an underworld of angst which grasps you tight and won’t let go.
The double vinyl lp will show off the fantastic artwork of Surrealist M…view full details.

Reissue LP on Munster. Some furious words from Spaniards Eskorbuto. Los Demenciales Chicos Acelerados is the 1987 banger getting a repress. This record is total anarchy, with the fellas ready to create a ruckus and oppose the powers that be - a la 'Rock Opera'. Full of straight up punk wailing, pneumatic drums, throbbing bass lines and righteous guitar solos, this is an unstoppable force.…view full details.

180g vinyl 2LP + CD on Kompakt. This is the same guy who made electro heavy dancefloor compositions, now finally sharing his love and affiliation with ambient music in a full length record. Leandro Fresco’s El Reino Invisible is already hailed as an ambient masterpiece, which, if his releases in Kompakt’s Pop Ambient series are indication, may not be far off target.…view full details.